Ghana Health Service partners with Ghana Education Service to commence annual school-age deworming

The Neglected Tropical Diseases under the Public Health Division of the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Act to End NTD West Programme have started the annual School-Age Deworming Exercise for children aged 5-14 years in 15 Regions across the country.

The 15 Regions include; Ashanti, Bono East, Bono, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, North East, Northern, Oti, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western North, and Western Region. The theme of the exercise is “Achieving Health Equity to end Schistosomiasis”, and starts from November 21 to December 9, 2022.

Dr. Anthony Ofosu Adofo, the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service addressing the media in a briefing in Accra today, encouraged the media to play its role by disseminating relevant information about the benefits of deworming to the general public and also serve as advocates for the school-age deworming exercise.

Also, addressing the media, Theresa Oppong Mensah; Director SHEP for the Ghana Education Service said that, “School Help Education Programme (SHEP) has been identified as a key agency to collaborate with Ghana Health Service’s (GHS) Neglected Tropical Diseases Programme (NTDP). Ghana stands to make even more significant progress in control and elimination of NTDs through these close collaborations and planning with SHEP to develop actions plans for enhanced service integration. The main focus of the collaboration is to provide advisory support for coordination programme activities, advocacy, communication and resource mobilization for the elimination and control of NTDs in Ghana. We pledge our support for a successful 2022 Deworming Exercise. Cross sectoral collaboration has been identified to play a vital role in the achievement of a number of the sustainable development goals and in particular Goals 3 and 4.”